CALL FOR PROPOSALS: 50th National Center Annual Conference

The National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, City University of New York, invites practitioners and scholars to submit abstracts of proposed panels for our 50th annual conference that will be taking place in April 2023 in New York City. The theme of the 50th anniversary conference will be Collective Bargaining in Higher Education: Looking Back, Looking Forward, 1973-2023. We welcome proposals for panels that will examine current topics in collective bargaining and unionization on campus in historical context. Toward that goal and consistent with the conference theme we will be encouraging panels to utilize materials from prior conference proceedings and earlier National Center newsletters to help frame their presentations. A list of suggested panel topics are listed below. We also encourage conference proposals from authors of recently published books relevant to higher education collective bargaining and unionization. Those interested in proposing a panel should upload an abstract by September 9, 2022 to 2023 Abstract Dropbox that includes a title and description along with a list of invited participants, their titles, affiliations, and contact information. We anticipate that the conference will be hybrid and request you state whether the panelists would want to participate in-person or virtually. Questions concerning the call for proposals should be emailed to 2023 National Center Annual Conference.

Suggested Conference Panel Topics

We seek proposals on a range of topics including but not limited to the following: Administrator Perspectives on Negotiations in Retrospect and Prospect Union Perspectives on Organizing and Bargaining: Yesterday and Today Bargaining Table Conduct and Tactics: Collegiality or Adversity Over Time Revisiting Grievance-Arbitration Procedures for More Expedited Outcomes The Substance and Procedures of Contract Non-Discrimination Clauses Yeshiva University: The Decision's Long-Term Impact on Collective Negotiations Bargaining Unit Composition: Separate, Combined, or Wall-to-Wall? Collective Bargaining and Governance: In Harmony or In Conflict? Tenure, Due Process, and Other Labor Rights as Subjects of Negotiations Bargaining, Arbitrating, and Litigating over Academic Freedom Community Colleges: Distinct Challenges for Administrators and Unions Historical Trends in Public Financing and Enrollment in Higher Education The Effect of Negotiations on Faculty Compensation The History of Union Representation of Contingent Faculty Lessons Learned from Clerical Staff Unionization at Harvard, Yale, and Columbia The Role of Students in Negotiations, Faculty Evaluations, and Governance It Started in Madison: Graduate Assistant Collective Bargaining Since 1969 DIY Union at Grinnell: A New Approach to Undergraduate Labor Activism Student Scholarship Athletes: Unionization and Collective Bargaining Experiences in Internal Labor Organizing and Empowerment on Campus Title IX: Its Effect on Gender Disparities and Sexual Harassment On Campus in Historical Perspective Race and Gender Differences in Support for Collective Bargaining Cultural Taxation and Other Adverse Impacts on Faculty of Color The History of LGBTQ Activism on Campus and Within Unions The Anatomies, Causes, and Results of Campus Strikes Reevaluating Historic Arguments and Debates Over Remote Education Negotiating Over Accommodations for Disabled Faculty, Staff, and Students Management Rights Issues in Higher Education Collective Bargaining An Analysis of Higher Education Pandemic-Related Negotiated Agreements

National Center's 49th Annual Conference

The National Center's 2022 national conference was a major success. The virtual conference took place on April 11-13, 2022. We thank the many panelists and moderators who participated and the conference attendees.  We are grateful to TIAA, SEIU, AAUP, AFT, NEA and NCHE for sponsoring the conference, to the organizations, law firms, and businesses that purchased conference program advertisements, and to the individuals who made donations. Below are links to video recordings of conference presentations along with links to panel descriptions, panelists bios, and reading material. Click here for the full conference program.  Welcome with Jennifer J. Raab, President, Hunter College, CUNY, Theodore H. Curry, Professor of Human Resources and Labor Relations, Michigan State University, Christopher Simeone, Director, Department of Organizing and Services, AAUP, and William A. Herbert, Executive Director, National Center for the Study of Collective Bargaining in Higher Education and the Professions, Hunter College, CUNY.  Keynote Presentation: Higher Education Under the Biden-Harris Administration with Montserrat Garibay, Senior Advisor for Labor Relations, Office of the Secretary, U.S. Department of Education in conversation with Kathleen Mulligan, Director of the National Labor Leadership Initiative, Cornell University, ILR School. Panelists Bios Announcement: Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy with Jeffrey Cross, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy and Gary Rhoades, Journal of Collective Bargaining in the Academy. Panel: The Future of Higher Education with Arthur Levine, Author, The Great Upheaval: Higher Education's Past, Present, and Uncertain Future (2021), Ann Kirschner,  University Professor, City University of New York, Discussant, Adrianna Kezar, Endowed Professor and Dean's Professor of Leadership, USC, Director, Pullias Center, and Director, Delphi Project, Discussant, and Daniel Greenstein, Chancellor, Pennsylvania State System of Higher Education, Moderator.  Panel Description and Panelists Bios Panel: Reassessing and Reexamining the History of Higher Education with Elizabeth Tandy Shermer, Author, Indentured Students: How Government-Guaranteed Loans Left Generations Drowning in College Debt (2021), Cristina Viviana Groeger, Author, The Education Trap: Schools and the Remaking of Inequality in Boston (2021), and Davarian Baldwin, Author, In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower: How Universities Are Plundering Our Cities (2021), and Ellen Schrecker, The Lost Promise: American Universities in the 1960s (2021), Suzanne Kahn, Managing Director of Research and Policy, Roosevelt Institute, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Bibliography Panel: Contract Negotiations under COVID and Beyond with Margaret E. Winters, former Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs, Wayne State University, Ricardo Villarosa, Wayne State University AAUP-AFT, Dominick Fanelli, Associate Director Labor Relations, University of Michigan, Kirsten Herold, President, Lecturers' Employee Organization, AFT Local 6244, and Homer C. La Rue, Labor Arbitrator, Mediator, and Professor of Law, Howard University School of Law, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material Panel: COVID and Higher Education: The Role of Unions and Arbitration Regarding Vaccine Mandates with Richard Bales, Professor of Law, Pettit College of Law, Ohio Northern University, Eve Weinbaum, Co-President, Massachusetts Society of Professors, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, Michael Eagen, Associate Provost for Academic Personnel, University of Massachusetts, Amherst, and Charles Toombs, President, California Faculty Association, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios Panel: Pandemic Organizing and Bargaining Lessons in Higher Education with Larry Savage, Chair, Department of Labour Studies, Brock University and Lauren Byers, United Faculty of Florida, Unit Service Director, Organizing Specialist, Barry Miller, Senior Policy Advisor on Labour Relations, York University, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material   Panel: Lesson Learned: Organizing and Collective Bargaining by Graduate Assistants During the Pandemic with Jacob A. Bennett, MFA, PhD, University of New Hampshire, Ben Serber, Higher Ed Organizer, North Dakota United and Past President, FSU Graduate Assistants United, Amy L. Levant, Assistant Director of Labor and Employee Relations, University of Illinois, Chicago, and Joseph van der Naald, Graduate Student Researcher, Program in Sociology, Graduate Center, CUNY, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios Panel: Limiting Use of Student Evaluations in Contracts: Challenges in Vision and Enforcement with Steven Newman, former President, Temple Association of University Professionals, Temple University, Ian Sakinofsky, Professor of HR Management, Ryerson University, Laura Murphy, Dutchess United Educators, Alexandra Matish, Associate Vice Provost for Academic and Faculty Affairs, University of Michigan, and Timothy S. Taylor, Arbitrator, Scheinman Arbitration and Mediation Services, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material   Panel: Federal Funding, Inequality, and Higher Education: Politics and Policy-Making with Adam Harris, staff writer at the Atlantic, National Fellow at New America, and Author, The State Must Provide: Why America’s Colleges Have Always Been Unequal — and How to Set Them Right (2021), Rebecca S. Natow, Assistant Professor of Educational Leadership & Policy, Hofstra University and author, Reexamining the Federal Role in Higher Education: Politics and Policymaking in the Postsecondary Sector (2022), and Sosanya Jones, Associate Professor of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Howard University, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material Panel: Becoming JEDI: Labor-Management Strategy to Challenge Racism on Campus and Stem Community College Enrollment Decline with Courtney Brewer, Professor of Psychology, Executive Vice President, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Christina Vargas, Chief Diversity Officer and Title IX Coordinator, Suffolk County Community College, board member, ERASE Racism NY, Patty Munsch, Interim Vice President for Student Affairs, Suffolk County Community College, Jennifer Browne, Associate Dean for Curriculum Development, Suffolk County Community College, Lauren Liburd, Specialist, SCCC Foundation, Co-Chair Achieving the Dream Committee, and Cynthia Eaton, Professor of English, Secretary, Faculty Association Suffolk Community College, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material Panel: Collective Bargaining and Shared Governance: Findings from the 2021 AAUP Shared Governance Survey with Lynn Pasquerella, President, Association of American Colleges and Universities, Timothy Reese Cain, Associate Professor of Higher Education, University of Georgia, Hans-Joerg Tiede, Director of Research, American Association of University Professors, and Michael Loconto, Arbitrator and Mediator, Loconto ADR, Boston, MA, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material    Panel: Achieving Pay Parity for Part-Time Faculty in Community Colleges with Sandra Weese, Organizing Director, California Federation of Teachers, Ron McKinley, Vice Chancellor of Human Resources and Employee Relations, Peralta Community College District, Dyana Delfin-Polk, Peralta Community College District Board of Trustees, and Jennifer Shanoski, President, Peralta Federation of Teachers, AFT Local 1603, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material     Panel: An Update from NLRB and Public Sector Labor Relations Agencies on Higher Education Issues with Mark Gaston Pearce, Executive Director, Workers’ Rights Institute, Georgetown University Law School, and former National Labor Relations Board Chairman, J. Felix De La Torre, General Counsel, California Public Employment Relations Board, Ellen Maureen Strizak, General Counsel, Illinois Educational Labor Relations Board, and Jennifer Abruzzo, General Counsel, National Labor Relations Board. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material Panel: Faculty Unionization and Collective Bargaining in the Philippines: Similarities and Differences with Benjamin Velasco, Assistant Professor, University of the Philippines, School of Labor and Industrial Relations, Rene Luis Tadle, Associate Professor, Philosophy, University of Santo Tomas and Lead Convenor, Council of Teachers and Staff of Colleges and Universities of the Philippines, Gerardo L. Blanco Associate Professor, Higher Education, Academic Director, Center for International Higher Education, Boston College, Shannon Lederer, Director of Immigration Policy, AFL-CIO, and Ashwini Sukthankar, Secretary/Treasurer, International Commission for Labor Rights, Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios Panel: Higher Education Legal Update with Henry Morris, Jr., Partner, Arent Fox LLP, Monica Barrett, Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC, Angela Thompson, CWA Special Counsel for Strategic Initiatives, Aaron Nisenson, Senior Legal Counsel, AAUP, Panelist and Moderator. Panel Description and Panelists Bios; Reading Material

Support for the Conference was provided by:

2021-22 Academic Collective Bargaining Survey

The National Center is conducting a nationwide survey to collect information about all current collective bargaining units and contracts in higher education. We strongly encourage administrators and labor representatives to respond to the survey, which is aimed at collecting current information about all collective bargaining units and contracts in higher education involving faculty, administrators, postdoctoral scholars, and student workers. The data collected will be used for a new directory of collective bargaining relationships and other scholarship. We reemphasize the importance of timely responses from individuals with direct knowledge of bargaining unit compositions, sizes, and agreements are essential for ensuring that our database is current and comprehensive. The survey will take about 15 minutes to complete. Any identifying individual information will be kept confidential and will be used only to follow up if clarification of responses is necessary. Please complete and submit a survey response to ensure that data relating to your institution or bargaining unit are included. The survey can be accessed by using the links below: Follow this link to the Survey: Take the Survey Or copy and paste the URL below into your internet browser: https://yorkcuny.iad1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_9v2Ns7Qowho4PRA If you have any questions about the survey, please contact the National Center's research team at: ncscbint1@hunter.cuny.edu.

Become a Conference Sponsor or Purchase an Advertisement in the Annual Conference Program

Your organization or firm can demonstrate its support for the 2023 Annual Conference by becoming sponsor or purchasing an advertisement in the conference program. To become a sponsor or to purchase an advertisement, email us at national.center@hunter.cuny.edu.